322 
NATORE 
[NovEMBER 13, 1913 bs 
DR. ALFRED RUSSEL WALLACE, O.M., 
BERS. 
HE death of Alfred Russel Wallace on Novem- 
ber 7, at ninety years of age, marks a 
milestone in the history of biology. For he was 
the last distinguished representative of a type 
that can never be again—a combination of 
naturalist-traveller, biologist, and geographer, a 
knower of species, and yet from first to last a 
generaliser “inquisitive about causes,” and, with 
all this, an investigator who stood outside any 
of the usual methods of analysis, with “a positive 
distaste for all forms of anatomical and physio- 
logical experiment.” It will probably be a very 
long time before a biologist again rises to real 
distinction apart from experimental analysis in 
some form or other. His career and _ scientific 
work were described in these columns by Prof. 
H. F. Osborn in June of last year (vol. Ixxxix., 
p. 367), and we hope to publish a further apprecia- 
tion of him next week. Here, therefore, we do 
little more than record his death and point to some 
outstanding characteristics of his life. 
In thinking of Wallace’s contributions to science, 
we recall first the feverish week at Ternate, when 
he wrote his famous letter to Darwin, “like a 
thunderbolt from a cloudless sky,” expounding 
the idea of natural selection—a letter which was 
communicated, along with extracts from Darwin’s 
unpublished work, to the Linnean Society at the 
historical meeting on July 1, 1858. Everyone is 
proud of the magnanimity with which each dis- 
coverer treated the claims of the other. Their 
detachment from everything but getting at the 
truth was congruent with the nobility of both. It 
was indeed just what might have been expected, 
but there was throughout an instinctive generosity 
which has always appealed to the ethical imagina- 
tion. Darwin’s helpful friendliness was met by 
Wallace’s devoted loyalty, which was conspicuous, 
for instance, when he gave his fine book of 1889 
the title “Darwinism,” or emphasised at the 
1908 celebration the fact that the idea of natural 
selection had occurred to Darwin nearly twenty 
years before the joint paper of 1858. Well was 
it said of him, ‘Darwinii emulum, immo Dar- 
winium alterum.” 
After natural selection, one thinks of the 
geographical distribution of animals, and it may 
be justly said that this study, which has evolved 
vigorously in many directions in the last genera- 
tion, got its modern start from Wallace’s standard 
work (1876), which fulfilled its intention of bearing 
to the eleventh and twelfth chapters of the 
“Origin of Species,” a relation similar to that 
which ‘‘ Animals and Plants under Domestication ” 
bears to the first. It was followed up by the more 
popular “Island Life,” which has been a stimulus 
to many a travelling naturalist, and has prompted 
numerous investigations. 
The building up of a science often reminds one 
of the waves making a new beach—multitudes of 
particular movements which are not in themselves 
permanent, but make others of more lasting effect 
possible. Perhaps the same should be said of 
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a 
much that Wallace’s fertile mind contributed, for 
instance, in regard to sexual selection, concerning ' 
which he was wisely sceptical, in regard t to. 
“warning colours” and “recognition marks,” 
regard to the part played by instruction and 
imitation in the development of instinctive be 
haviour ; and many more instances might be se 
work which centres round Mendelism and muta-_ - 
tions, but it was a fine example of his a 
plasticity of mind that he entirely agreed with 
Weismann in finding the transmission of acquired 
characters unproved. His independence was con- 
spicuously shown by the vigour with which he 
maintained in his “Darwinism” and elsewhere 
that the facts of man’s higher nature compel us 
to postulate a special “spiritual influx,” com- 
parable to that which intervened, he thought, — 
when living organisms first appeared and when — 
consciousness began. He may have lacked 
philosophical discipline, but he was never awanting — 
in the courage of his convictions. Throughout — 
his life he was given to puzzling over difficult — 
problems far beyond the range of biology—in 
economics and astronomy, in psychology and 
politics, and perhaps it was this width of interest 
in part that kept him young so long. 
There was a great humanity about Alfred 
Russel Wallace, which won affection as surely as 
his services to science commanded respect. Like 
many hard workers he found time to be 
generously kind to young men; he did not suffer 
fools gladly, but he was always ready to cham- 
pion the cause of the oppressed; he could never 
divest himself of his citizenship, and almost to 
his last breath he was thinking of how things 
might be made better in the State. By nature 
quiet, gentle, reflective, and religious, he had no” 
ambitions save for truth and justice and the 
welfare of his fellow-men; he was satisfied with — 
plain living and high thinking, with his garden, — 
and with that “ double vision” which was always 
with him. For, whatever we may think of his” 
spiritualism,” it was peculiarly his— 
To see the world in a grain of sand, 
And heaven in a flower; 
To grasp infinity in the palm of the hand 
And eternity in an hour. 
SIR WILLIAM HENRY PREECE, K:CoBs 
F.RES. 
ILLIAM HENRY PREECE was born near | 
Carnarvon on February 15, 1834, being the 
eldest son of R. M. Preece. He died at Penrhos, 
Carnarvon, on November 6, 1913, being in his 
eightieth year. All his professional life had been 
connected with telegraphic engineering and the 
development of electrical engineering ; and, savi 
for the veteran, Mr. C. E. Spagnoletti, who sur- 
vives him, he was the oldest telegraph engineer 
in Great Britain. After completing his education 
at King’s College, London, he entered the office’ 
of the late Mr. Edwin Clark, who was connected 
with pioneering work of submarine cables, and 
at the age of nineteen he was appointed as a junior 
